Sunday, June 28, 2009

Into your hands, young men of good family, I transfer and transmit, entrust and deposit this supreme and perfect enlightenment arrived at by me after hundred thousands of myriads of kotis of incalculable Æons. Receive it, young men of good family, keep, read, fathom, teach, promulgate, and preach it to all beings. I am not avaricious, young men of good family, nor narrow-minded; I am confident and willing to impart Buddha-knowledge, to impart the knowledge of the Tathâgata, the knowledge of the Self-born. I am a bountiful giver, young men of good family, and ye, young men of good family, follow my example; imitate me in liberally showing this knowledge of the Tathâgata, and in skilfulness, and preach this Dharmaparyâya to the young men and young ladies of good family who successively shall gather round you. And as to unbelieving persons, rouse them to accept this law. By so doing, young men of good family, you will acquit your debt to the Tathâgatas.

So addressed by the Lord Sâkyamuni, the Tathâgata, the Bodhisattvas filled with delight and joy, and with a feeling of great respect they lowered, bent, and bowed their body towards the Lord, and, the head inclined and the joined hands stretched out, they spoke in one voice to the Lord Sâkyamuni, the Tathâgata, the following words: We shall do, O Lord, what the Tathâgata commands; we shall fulfil the command of all Tathâgatas. Let the Lord be at ease as to this, and perfectly quiet. A second time, a third time the entire host of Bodhisattvas spoke in, one voice the same words: Let the Lord be at ease as to this, and perfectly quiet. We shall do, O Lord, what the Tathâgata commands us; we shall fulfil the command of all Tathâgatas.

Thereupon the Lord Sâkyamuni, the Tathâgata, dismissed all those Tathâgatas, who had come to the gathering from other worlds, and wished them a happy existence, with the words: May the Tathâgatas, live happy. Then he restored the Stûpa of precious substances of the Lord Prabhûtaratna, the Tathâgata, to its place, and wished him also a happy existence.

The difference with the Christian Great Commission is that the Dharmaparyâya is quite open as long as you avoid what is easily avoidable: a literal interpretation.

All major sects of which I'm aware but the Nichiren sect read the sutra this way (and I'm sure there are those in that sect who don't read it literally either).

When the Dharmaparyâya is understood as pointing beyond the text of the Wondrous Law (as Hakuin said, the Law cannot exist apart from mind!) and when the doctrine of skillful means are considered, and when these bodhisattvas are understood as present within the interstices of everyday existnce, it is clear that to Buddhists the Lotus Sutra is of great value, and to Zen Buddhists, those of us who pursue the special transmission outside words and letters, these "words and letters" that point outside themselves are quite important.

That concludes the Lotus Sutra series.

I will probably take up the Lankavatara Sutra next, as a) the translation by Suzuki is readily available, and b) it more specifically relates to Zen practice.